12 August 2011

The good painting

I spent a lot of time in Akkers talking about the good painting.

This is something that is notoriously difficult to define. When I was in my early 20s, I thought I'd just lie around and think about it. I see no reason to contribute to this society. However, I found that, to think about painting properly, you need to make it. And then I found that, to make it properly, you need to exhibit it. You get far too close to the bloody things. You need someone else to tell you what you've been doing. And working out what that is from the lies and omissions is another notoriously difficult thing to do!

This is why I'm really happy with my show at Ivan's. I think it looked really good – the clearest statement I've yet made about what I think the good painting is (hence the title).

Trying to say the same thing through writing, on the other hand, I'm not so happy with.